Friday, July 06, 2007

Is work getting you down? Then maybe this will pick you up. Take a break and enjoy these five images.

Some of you may have noticed a pause in our blogging during the month of May. Well, it's because I took my wife to the Oberland and Engadine regions of Switzerland. (Yes, we do get out of the office on occasion). These are just a few pics from that trip. This is my wife Catherine contemplating existence during our hike to Murren.

That's me on the same hike. This is the region that we refer to as the Berner Oberland, and these are the types of views that we enjoy while hiking from one village to another. Notice the glaciers. This is the region that allows you to get up close and personal with some pretty "cool" relics of the ice age. I just read that Baker, California hit 125 degrees today. We should enjoy these these icy wonders while they're still around.

This is the town of Guarda, located in a most splendid region called the Engadine.

Notice the architecture. Most of these towns were developed and settled by the Romans, hence the extraordinary use of stone and plaster. The ornate exterior designs are called sgraffito. Literally meaning "to scratch" in Italian, this is a popular technique used in painting, pottery, and glass, which consists of putting down a preliminary surface, covering it with another, and then scratching the superficial layer in such a way that the pattern or shape that emerges is of the lower colour. This was a common technique during the middle ages and a hallmark of the Engadine region. This is the town of Ardez.

Celebrating 33 Years!

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